Hancock

PG13

 

Directed by Peter Berg

 

Starring Will Smith, Jason Bateman, Charlize Theron

 

Heidi’s Illustrious Rating: 2

 

Word of Warning: Lots of swearing and imbibing of copious amounts of liquor. Some gun violence and some truly crude violence. I feel this movie nearly merits an R rating.

 

All hail the arrival of the big budget summer movie season and as usual, this summer has quite a line up. I had high hopes for “Hancock,” though my gut was telling me otherwise. Will Smith, who has the cornered the market on 4^th of July movie openings, is a likable guy so I decided to overlook my disappointment in “I am Legend” and give Smith’s “Hancock” a try. I should have listened to my gut. This movie was tolerable, cheap laughs and all, until it started to develop a plot line.

 

The story is based in L.A. and involves an alcoholic named Hancock (Will Smith) who is endowed with strange powers including flying and invincibility. Despite these abilities, Hancock is a very reluctant superhero; he helps stop bad guys, but his careless drunken style results in destruction and mayhem. He often causing more damage than the bad guys ever could have accomplished and therefore, the public has turned against him.

 

Jason Bateman plays Ray Embrey a public relations executive who decides he is going to change Hancock’s public image for the better. Embrey is a do-gooder who struggles endlessly to sell his product, a heart-shaped logo corporations can use on their products to show how much they care about the world. Despite his repeated failure to sell this heart logo, Embrey lives in a stunning Los Angeles home with a beautiful wife (Charlize Theron) and son. Shouldn’t this guy be living a postage stamp size apartment eating sprouts and tofu and sporting raggedy Birkenstocks?

 

The first half of “Hancock” is funny, but at the midpoint the storyline begins to feel like a made-for-the Sci-Fi Channel movie. Basically this would have been a better movie if it had remained plot-less, because once the plot starts to develop the audience is left shaking their head in confused disbelief. When the movie tries to takes a somewhat serious direction, the writers fail to deliver. As my husband pointed out, they needed to call in Stan Lee or some other comic book expert to help the writers write a comprehensible superhero storyline.

 

Jason Bateman is his usual amusing character, though I think Charlize Theron’s abilities as an actor were truly underutilized in this part. Peter Berg who directed “The Kingdom,” an enjoyable movie also staring Smith and Bateman, didn’t impress me in “Hancock.” There were so many slow rotating close ups of Will Smith’s frowning face I was able to count up his pores, an activity I did not find entertaining. The special effects were fine, but can someone please tell me why smoke trailed behind Hancock when he flew?

 

Walking out of this movie I felt confused and annoyed; the best part of “Hancock” was the preview for the next James Bond installment. If you want to see a movie about an invincible, flying superhero, save your money and rent “Superman.”

 

 

**Also published in the Berthoud Weekly Surveyor